7 Important Things to Teach Your Teenage Son ...

Alicia

There are some important things to teach your teenage son before he leaves home to help him along. I have a teenage son and have done my best to cover a bit of each of these subjects with him. It is our job as parents to prepare our children for handling life when they leave our home. These things to teach your teenage son will help him as he goes throughout all of his adult life.

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1. Basic Household Chores

In my opinion, sons need to learn this every bit as much as daughters do. Not only could they choose not to marry but they very well may have a working wife who needs their help. Housework is not only woman’s work. Doing the dishes, laundry, as well as many other basic cleaning chores are things to teach your teenage son before he leaves home. Even if he isn’t interested in learning, someday he will be glad that you taught him.

2. Basic Cooking

Men need to know how to cook too, which is why it is important to teach our teenage sons this skill. Many mothers don’t think about this fact or think that their son may not be interested in learning. That is not always true. My rough and tough teenage son loves to cook. Teaching your teenage son to cook means that he is a little more self-sufficient for those times you are not around. It also means he can always cook for himself throughout his life.

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3. Money Management

Money management is a subject that all teenagers need to learn.. Many of us adults wish we had received a little more instruction on this subject, don’t we? You don’t have to teach him every detail of financing but you should definitely cover balancing a checkbook and handling a budget. Another great way to teach money management is by making your teenage son earn money instead of just handing it over to him. He won’t appreciate this right now but will later in his life when he knows the value of a dollar.

4. The Cost of Life

I regularly talk to both of my children about the costs of things such as utility bills, mortgage payments and groceries so that they have a true picture of what it takes to make it on their own. I do not want them to have a false picture of what life is like out there. I want them to understand that you must have more money coming in than going out to stay afloat. An exercise I did with my teenage son was to have him write down what his expenses would be if he moved out at age eighteen with no education to get a job that paid well. I haven’t heard any more talk of moving out at age eighteen since then.

5. How Girls Think

I want my teenage son to understand how girls think. While he will never fully get it because he is not a girl, I can give him some little hints that will hopefully help him to understand women a bit better. I have shared with him how much romantic gestures, compliments and just listening mean to a girl. I have even bought him books on the subject. In return, he is a thoughtful and sensitive young man.

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6. About Girl Days and Times

Another subject I have covered with my teenage son is the subject of PMS, periods and pregnancy. They are a fact of life that he, and other teenage boys, need to understand. There are as many girls in our home as there are boys so I have explained there are going to be sometimes that my daughter and I may not feel well or be a little more emotional just because we are females. Because I have been open about this with him, it is not a taboo subject that we cannot discuss. I have also talked to him about pregnancy including prevention for now and the way he needs to be involved later in his life as an expectant father.

7. To Be a Gentleman

One compliment that I have received more than any other regarding my teenage son is how he is such a gentleman. I am very proud of him for that fact. He is so well-mannered and polite and I am thankful for that. But he would not have been that way if I had not been very strict with him concerning this from the time he was very small. He not only knows the polite phrases he should say to others but is quick to open doors for women and offer assistance to the women close to him.

Like you, I am still a mother in the teenage trenches and still learning. What have you made sure to teach your teenage sons? I would love to know.

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oops, hit send by accident... I wanted to add that when we got my oldest a car, we explained the importance of keeping up on its maintenance. Also how to change a tire as well as checking fluids.

Nice read! I have 3 boys, two of which are teens. These things are taught in my house as well.

He may also have a working husband.

I love this article!! I too have done exactly the same things with my teenage son. Thank you for letting me know that I'm not the only mum applying these things. I've been told that I am hard. I call it "life skills". Thank you x

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